


Gullible

by ebbj9891



Series: In Quest Of Something [57]
Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Established Relationship, Family Issues, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, M/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 22:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4117521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebbj9891/pseuds/ebbj9891
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Justin discovers that Gus has duped him, he decides to fight back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gullible

_Leeks, carrots, onions, chicken, bread rolls…_ Justin sifts through the bag of shopping as the C train rattles downtown, triple-checking to make sure that the ingredients for Gus’ chicken soup are all there. Everything seems to be present and accounted for. Of course, then there’s also all of Gus’ assorted feel-better goodies: _Black cherry soda, potato chips, Peanut Butter M &Ms…_

As the train arrives at Spring Street, Justin jumps up and pushes through the throng of stationary passengers to get to the doors. He moves through the station with haste, keen to get home and check on Gus. The poor kid has been horribly unwell all morning: feverish, achy, trembling, coughing, and generally looking pretty miserable. Justin can’t help but worry - he hasn’t seen Gus this unwell in years and he’s also never left him alone for this long before. Sure, Gus is twelve now and growing up fast and furious, but Justin is worried nonetheless. He’s been out for over an hour sourcing all the necessary bits and pieces to help Gus through this unfortunate bout of sickness. As he heads home, he sends Gus a quick text to reassure him: _Home soon. Love you x_

There’s no reply. Maybe Gus is sleeping again - he’s been fatigued all morning. Or maybe his fever has worsened and he’s all alone in the apartment, sweating and shaking, in dire need of medical intervention…

Justin cringes. He’s turning into his mother. It’s a disturbing development; one which he’s been uncomfortably aware of for some time. As much as he loves his mom, he doesn’t actually want to _become_ her. He tries to shake off the excessive anxiousness and focuses on getting home to see Gus.

When he finally arrives home (it seems to take an eternity to get there), Gus isn’t in front of the TV anymore lazing feverishly, nor is he in the kitchen sniffling into a cup of tea. Justin ditches the shopping in there and goes to see if Gus is in his bedroom. He starts down the hallway, but stops as he hears Gus laughing loudly.

The laughter is a far cry from the hacking coughing that Justin heard as he left the apartment earlier. What follows is even more shocking: sounding perfectly healthy and extremely smug, Gus boasts, “Of course I didn’t have to go to that dumb kid club get-together, Ru. Come on. I told you I was gonna find a way out of going to that.”

Justin’s jaw drops. Only a few hours ago, Gus was whimpering about how guilty he felt for ‘missing out’ and ‘wasting mom’s money’.

“How do you think I got out of it?” Gus snickers and gloats, “Dad’s in Pittsburgh, moms are in Toronto - it’s just me and Jus, and he’s gullible as fuck. All I had to do was cough a bit and he caved in an instant. I told you: he’s way easy to get around.”

Gus’ smug claims stings badly. Justin stands in the hallway, reeling, unable to hear anything but those taunting words: _he’s gullible as fuck_. It hurts. It really, really hurts.

Inside his bedroom, Gus is still bragging to Ruby over the phone about his ingenious scheme. Justin refuses to listen to the rest. He returns to the kitchen and stares at the bag of shopping, packed full of items purchased especially for Gus. He’s tempted to go right back to the markets and return everything. There’s an idea - he could get rid of all of this good stuff and make Gus eat plain toast and drink flat ginger ale for the rest of the day. What better way to soothe an ‘upset’ stomach?

But it’s hot outside, and most of the items are looking a bit smushed after the crowded trip on the train. There’s no returning them now. Justin grabs the bag and starts unpacking the shopping. As he stashes the chicken in the fridge, a different idea occurs to him. He takes a moment to consider it and realises it’s way better than forcing Gus to choke down standard sickbed food. _Way_ better.

*

“Jus? Is that my soup?”

Justin turns and tries not to glare at Gus as he pads into the kitchen in his winter pyjamas and socks with a thick blanket draped around him. Gus sniffles and coughs a little - the treacherous little brat!

But rather than getting angry at the kid, Justin rushes towards him and wrenches Gus into a big hug. “Gussy, are you okay? I was so worried!”

“You were?” Gus mumbles, squirming a little.

Justin only hugs him tighter. “The whole way to the markets and the whole way home, I felt terrible. I was crazy worried about you! I shouldn’t have left you here on your own. I don’t know why I did. I could have ordered all of this in.”

He steps back and holds his arm out in a sweeping gesture towards the kitchen countertop, then takes a good look at Gus’ shocked expression. Gus bites down on his lip and asks hesitantly, “What is all this?”

“I’m going to make you feel a hundred percent better,” Justin promises, planting a big kiss on Gus’ forehead. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t feel at all feverish anymore. Whilst wondering how exactly Gus faked the temperature he was sporting earlier in the day (hot towels? a hairdryer?), Justin explains, “For lunch, I’m making you chicken soup from scratch. I got you bread rolls from your favourite bakery and that cherry soda that you like so much. Then I’m going to spend all afternoon making you dinner and dessert. You deserve a treat - it’ll make you feel so much better.”

“Oh,” Gus says, his brow creasing slightly. “Um, you really don’t have to go to all this trouble.”

“I want to. I love you, buddy.” Justin pulls him into another hug. “I’m so sorry that you’re feeling so rotten. I’m gonna do my best to fix that, okay?”

“Okay.”

Justin suppresses a smirk as he heads over to the stovetop to check on the soup. Gus isn’t sounding so sure, all of a sudden. But that’s not quite good enough, so Justin decides to take things up a notch.

“Ow,” he hisses as he stirs the soup. After shifting the ladle to his good hand, Justin gives the other a shake and flexes it repeatedly.

“Are you alright?”

“It’s my hand. You know how it is.”

“You should stop cooking if it hurts,” Gus says, his voice sounding a fraction smaller than it did a moment ago. “We could order in, like you said.”

“No - you’re sick,” Justin says, “You deserve a home-cooked meal.”

Gus swallows audibly. “I’ll survive.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Justin sighs and abandons the soup. He turns and looks at Gus with a woeful expression. “That’s all I could think of all the way uptown, and all the way back. What if you weren’t okay? I really shouldn’t have left you all on your own - not when you’re running a fever.”

“My fever feels better,” Gus protests weakly.

“That’s not the point. Gussy, it’s just you and me at the moment! I’m supposed to be responsible. I shouldn’t have abandoned you like that.”

“It’s not a big deal.” Gus can’t seem to hold eye contact - his gaze keeps flicking uncomfortably between Justin and the countertop with its extensive assortment of treats. “None of this is a big deal.”

“I guess so.” Justin sighs. “I’m too much like my mom. She’s a worrier, you know. I guess I can’t help it.”

He turns back and continues stirring the soup. “It used to be pretty brutal at our house. Normally, it would start with me or Mol. One of us would get sick, we’d infect the other one, and Mom would be stuck looking after the both of us. She used to get so worried about the two of us. Then she’d get sick too! Dad always said it was the stress that did it. He said that if she would just try to keep calm and stop getting anxious, she wouldn’t end up making herself so sick.”

In his smallest voice yet, Gus asks, “Nanna made herself sick?”

“Well, she’d catch whatever we had, and then the stress just intensified it. She’d be out of commission for weeks.” Justin pauses and tenses up. He sets the ladle down and turns around. Whilst leaning against the counter, Justin crosses his arms over his chest and muses anxiously,“Shit, I hope I’m not like that. I can’t afford any time off at the moment. I’d never be ready in time for my next show, and then what would I d-”

“I’m not sick!” Gus blurts out, looking guilty as sin. “I made it up!”

“I knew it!” Justin cries accusingly. _“I. Knew. It.”_

The guilty expression disappears from Gus’ face immediately. His eyes grow cold and he says stonily, “You knew it?”

Justin shrugs. “I heard you talking to Ruby.”

With an outraged cry, Gus demands, “So you were just torturing me?!”

“And you were using me!” Justin glares at him. “Don’t you dare get mad - you lied to me, you manipulated me, and then you went and laughed about it with Ruby! Do you have any idea how shitty that makes me feel? Fuck, I spent all morning waiting on you hand and foot, trying to make you feel better - and then I find out that you and Ruby are mocking me! That really hurts, Gus.”

Gus blinks at him, then quickly averts his gaze. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Justin snaps. “I’m sorry that you see me as some gullible moron that you have to toy with to get what you want.”

“That’s not how I see you,” Gus protests. “I swear!”

“I heard what you said, Gus. According to you, I’m ‘gullible as fuck’.”

“I didn’t mean it!”

“Then don’t say it!” Justin twists around and wrenches the lid off the pot to stir the soup. As he swirls the ladle through the bubbling broth, he seethes, “Don’t say things you don’t mean; don’t lie to me; and don’t manipulate me. I can’t believe I even have to say this stuff to you! I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were _kinder_ than that.”

“I’m sorry! It was just easier this way!” Then, darkly, Gus mutters, “At least, it was supposed to be.”

“Easier than what, exactly?” Justin slams the lid back onto the soup and turns around to face Gus. “Please, enlighten me: what was it that was so difficult for you, that you decided it was preferable to act this way?”

Gus scowls at him for a while, his mouth twisting and scrunching as though he’s fighting the urge to fight back. When he finally speaks, it’s very measured - or about as ‘measured’ as Gus is capable of. “I didn’t want to go to that stupid fucking day camp.”

“I gathered that much,” Justin snarks.

“Right, ‘cause you were eavesdropping, which you always told me not to do!”

“You were blabbing to Ruby at top volume! I could hear you from the hallway - that’s not eavesdropping. Anyway, don’t turn this around on me. Explain yourself.”

After heaving a tortured sigh, Gus continues, “I didn’t want to go to that stupid fucking day camp, but I knew you were gonna make me unless I had a good reason not to go. So I faked being sick. Big deal. Nanna told me once that you used to fake all the time when-”

“What did I just say?” Justin has to restrain himself from throwing his hands up in the air; he carefully resists the urge because that would only bring him one step closer to turning into his mother. “Don’t turn this around on me. This is about you.”

“Fine,” Gus huffs. “Anyway, that’s it. That’s all. I didn’t want to go so I pulled a sickie. End of.”

“‘End of’, huh?” Justin narrows his eyes and assesses Gus warily. It doesn’t seem like ‘end of’. “There’s nothing more that you want to say?”

Gus stares down at his hands, which are folded tightly in front of him. “Nope.”

Bullshit, Justin thinks. He decides to go digging for the truth. “Your moms thought that club was a good idea.”

“Moms always think shit like that is a good idea.” Gus rolls his eyes and sighs wearily. “I’m sick of it. It’s always something with them - some extracurricular activity to ‘enrich’ my ‘learning journey’ or what-the-fuck-ever. These are my summer holidays, goddamnit. I just want to _be_ for a little while.”

“You could have told me that.” Justin checks on the soup, gives it one more stir, then goes to sit across from Gus. “If you’d just said that you didn’t want to go, that would have been good enough for me.”

“No it wouldn’t,” Gus gripes. “I always need a ‘good reason’ for everything.”

Justin drops his chin into his hands and examines Gus carefully. “Like I just said: you not wanting to go would have been reason enough. I trust your judgment.”

“You would have sided with moms. You and Dad have to side with them.”

Something inside Justin twists uncomfortably. He leans in towards Gus and confides quietly, “Not always.”

Gus frowns suspiciously. “Keep talking.”

It’s a dicey topic to navigate, this one. Justin thinks for a moment about how best to express how he feels about the situation. Mostly, their ‘parenting team’ (as Linz is wont to call it) works pretty well. It’s not perfect, but it is what it is. Justin doesn’t want to throw Mel and Linz under the bus - but he sometimes get the sense that Gus feels wronged and would like to resolve that.

“I don’t always agree with them, just like they don’t always agree with me… and trust me, Brian doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with them, either. I do feel that it’s important that we try to work together to raise you… but Gussy, at the end of the day, I’m on your side.”

“You are?”

“Of course I am. If you had told me that you didn’t want to go to this thing, I wouldn’t have made you.”

“But moms-”

“You’re not with your moms right now. You’re here. You’re under my roof, it’s just the two of us - I get to make a few command decisions.”

Gus scowls down at his fingers, still laced tightly together.“I wanted to talk to you about it. But then you’d figure out what a loser I am.”

“A what?” Justin feels a sharp kick of concern. “You’re not a loser. I’d never think that about you.”

He and Gus stare at each other for a while. At long last, Gus sighs and admits, “Moms wanted to send me to that get-together so I could make new friends. Only I don’t want new friends. I have Ruby - she’s the only friend I need.”

Justin stays carefully quiet. He doesn’t really know what to say just yet. He is aware that Mel and Linz are worried about the limited company Gus keeps; they also told him that one of the goals of the program they enrolled Gus into would be to ‘expand his horizons’. He knows that they had the best of intentions - he doesn’t want to stab them in the back.

“Besides, nobody else likes me,” Gus mutters. “None of those kids would have liked me. Nobody ever does.”

The concern that Justin feels for the poor kid is downright excruciating. He can’t stand Gus talking about himself in such harsh terms. Justin tries his best to reassure his son by saying soothingly, “That’s not true, Gussy. You just haven’t found your people yet.”

With incredible conviction, Gus asserts, “I found my person when I was five years old. I don’t need anyone but Ruby.”

Justin smiles at him and reaches across to take his hand. “That’s okay. If that’s how you feel, that’s fine. But you should know - I thought the same thing about Daphne. For a very long time, she was it for me. But then I met your dad and all of his - our - friends, and now I can’t imagine my life without them. There are people I’ve met here, too, who mean a hell of a lot to me.”

“Whatever,” Gus mumbles, rolling his eyes.

Justin smiles to himself - he and Brian have been tallying the ‘whatevers’ lately and the tallies seem to increase exponentially with every passing week. “Fine, whatever. I just don’t want you thinking that you need to hide this stuff from me. I would never think badly of you just because you want to focus on your friendship with Ruby.”

With a moody huff, Gus snipes, “Bet you thought badly of me when you heard me calling you ‘gullible’.”

“It was ‘gullible as fuck’, if I recall correcly,” Justin teases, which he’s pleased to see makes Gus smile a little. “Well, yeah, that hurt. I know you’re growing up and part of that is hating your parents and talking shit about them, but it’s still hard to hear.”

“I don’t actually think that about you. I only said it so Ruby doesn’t figure out what a loser I am. I kind of thought that I’d rather her see you as gullible than see me as some otherwise-friendless loner.”

“Quit talking about my kid like that.” Justin squeezes Gus’ hand. “Or else.”

Gus’ smile grows a fraction. “Or else what?”

“Or else I won’t let you have any of this awesome food.”

Now grinning, Gus says enthusiastically, “That soup smells amazing. And what’s for dinner? Is it mac and cheese? It is, right?”

“It is,” Justin confirms, smiling. “I think the soup’s ready. Hold on, I’ll dish some up.”

He gets up and heads over to the stove, but before he can get there, Gus’ arms wrap around his middle.

“I’m sorry for hurting you,” Gus whispers. “You’re a really great dad.”

Justin grabs Gus’ forearms and holds on tight as Gus hugs him. “I love you, Gussy.”

“Love you, too.” Gus gives him another squeeze. “Do you feel better now?”

Justin smiles and replies softly, “All better.”

 **The End**  


End file.
